Parents as Partners in their Kids’ Development

Parental encouragement and support for learning activities at home combined with parental involvement in preschooling are critical to kids’ education, writes Hazel Siromoni, Managing Director-South Asia, Maple Bear, for Elets News Network (ENN).

Parenting is becoming complex with each new day though the emotions behind parenting remain the same irrespective of generations. At Maple Bear, we are very clear in sharing with parents that they are equally important in their children’s academic and nonacademic development.

Hazel Siromoni, Managing Director-South Asia, Maple Bear

We find that it is extremely important that a child doesn’t get confused by receiving two sets of messages one in his/her school and the other at home. It is a well proven fact that the communication and partnership between the school and parents is imperative for the child’s holistic development. We have observed that parents’ engagement in early childhood education impacts their child’s development positively. Parents cannot absolve themselves from their responsibility just by having sent their child to a preschool. Rather all of just have to work together in providing a facilitative environment which is engaging, filled with care, love, learning and growth.

Enough science and research has proven in all spheres be it psychologically, academically, emotionally or physically that these early years are the most important years for our children and young learners. This investment is also the basis to strengthening our children to be able to handle both success and failures. Emotional Quotient (EQ) of children is equally more important as of Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

One may find nowadays that our young people are getting overwhelmed with challenges and responding to opportunities wherein they find themselves ill-equipped in making choices, decisions without getting stressed. All this is linked to the experiences in the early years and if we all want to have a generation of sensitive, empathetic, resilient, innovative, excellence demanding leaders, it is important for parents, teachers and school administration to work together without creating lines that are more divisive than collaborative.

One very significant outcome is that this kind of parent engagement as partners allows the children to see the most important people of their lives working together, providing them a sense of comfort, confidence and ability to focus on learning.

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